138 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



LARV^I OF BRITISH 

 MACRO-LEPIDOPTERA. 



By G. C. Bignell, Stonehouse, Plymouth. 



For more than twenty years our lamen- 

 ted brother entomologist, William Buckler, 

 worked assidiously at portraying the British 

 larvae. Many of his figures I have had the 

 pleasure of seeing ; but strangers who did 

 not know him, when I say he was by pro- 

 fession a portraW-painter, will be able to 

 understand how it is that his drawings are 

 so very life-like : they place every drawing 

 of larvaa that I have seen attempted com- 

 pletely in the shade, when compared with 

 his beautiful productions. These have 

 since his death, been purchased by the Ray 

 Society : they consist of about 4,500 figures, 

 and there are also four vols, of original M.S. 

 notes. The Rev. J. Hellins, who has also 

 about 1,800 of his drawings and sketches 

 (some are only portions, such as a segment 

 or a particular part that was necessary to 

 enlarge for better description), has, in ac- 

 cordance with the understanding which 

 existed between him and Mr. Buckler, and 

 with a view of making the work, which is 

 proposed to be published, thoroughly com- 

 plete, placed the whole of them at the dis- 

 posal of the Society ; and from the whole 

 amount of these drawings, some of which 

 are in duplicate, no doubt will be selected 

 the choicest for publication. The volumes 

 that have already been issued by the Scciety 

 are of first-class description : this I think is 

 a sufficient guarantee that the forthcoming 

 work will be the best of the sort ever offered 

 to the entomological world ; it is expected 

 to be completed in four yearly vols. 



I must, however, remind our readers that 

 they will not be able to purchase this book 

 through their bookseller. In order to 

 obtain it, it will be necessary to join the 

 Ray Society, which can be done by com- 

 municating with the Secretary, the Rev. T. 



Wiltshire, 25, Granville Park, Lewisham, 

 London S.E. The annual contribution is a 

 Guinea ; P.O. or cheque for that amount 

 should be sent, with full name and address, 

 and while the annual subscription is con- 

 tinued, every subscriber will get the full 

 benefit of the works published by the 

 Society for the year. Only a limited number 

 will be published, and those who do not sub- 

 scribe for the year of publication will stand 

 a very great chance of being disappointed, 

 should they join afterwards for the purpose 

 of obtaining this invaluable work. My 

 advice to all who may read this, and wish 

 to avail themselves of this prize — and there 

 is not the slightest doubt it will be a prize 

 for any entomologist in the next generation 

 — is to join the Ray Society without delay, 

 and continue an annual subscriber to this 

 very useful society, and I am quite sure they 

 will never have cause to regret it. In the 

 works already issued no pains or expense 

 have been spared to make them perfect, 

 only first class artists and painters have 

 been employed, and to possess a vol. issued 

 by this society is "to possess a thing of 

 beauty, which is a joy for ever." 



If any words of mine can give emphasis to 

 the above communication I would desire 

 to add them here. Mr. Buckler's draw- 

 ings are simply perfect, and I have never 

 seen anything to approach them. For 

 several years nearly all the leading Ento- 

 mologists have made it a first duty to send 

 any larva to him that he had not already 

 figured, while many of them made special 

 efforts to obtain those he still wanted. 

 Consequently he had figured nearly every 

 Britsh larva, including many of exceptional 

 rarity. Such an opportunity of obtaining 

 reliable figures is not likely to occur 

 again in the life time of the present 

 generation, if ever, and those who can 

 afford the subscription will never regret 

 the outlay. — John E. Robson. 



